Gyanesh Kumar: The Supreme Court has refused to issue an interim order to immediately suspend Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar from his post. Gyanesh Kumar is accused of taking unilateral decisions by bypassing other election commissioners. However, the court has not given a complete clean chit to the Election Commission. Issuing a notice to the Center and the Election Commission, the Supreme Court has clearly warned that if any decision in the investigation is found to be against the rules, it will be changed immediately. Let us know what happened in the court room today.
SC notice to Election Commission
According to media reports, the Supreme Court has flatly refused to give an interim order to immediately suspend Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar from his post. While hearing the petition related to the objections and allegations of the remaining members of the Election Commission, a notice has been issued to the Election Commission.
It is being told that in the petitions filed in the court, it was alleged that Gyanesh Kumar has unilaterally implemented several policy and software amendments related to the ‘Special Intensive Review’ (SIR) process, bypassing the remaining two Election Commissioners (Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi).
A report by ‘The Indian Express’ has been cited in the petitions filed in the court. It is alleged that CEC Gyanesh Kumar, ignoring the objections of the remaining two Election Commissioners (Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi), unilaterally implemented about 14 decisions related to ‘Special Intensive Revision’ (SIR) and amendments of Form-6.
What happened in the courtroom regarding Gyanesh Kumar case?
• Supreme Court’s comment: Chief Justice Surya Kant said, “The Election Commission is expected to take decisions by consensus or majority. But today you are talking only on the basis of a news report, which may be completely or partially true or false. We would first like to know their stand on this.
• Strict warning from the court: The Court gave a clear warning that if the records of the Election Commission prove that the decisions were taken without the unanimity or majority of the three-member Commission, then the Court will not hesitate to overturn and cancel all those wrong decisions.
• Question on practical crisis: The Court also remarked that if the Chief Election Commissioner is suspended at this juncture, then who will handle the functioning of the Election Commission?
• Allegations of the petitioners: Senior lawyer Maneka Guruswamy and the petitioners alleged that there were irregularities in the internal functioning and database of the ECI. It was claimed that new conditions were added to Form-6 without the consent of the full commission and arbitrary decisions were taken in matters related to voters in West Bengal and Goa.